HIGH NOTES… Mount Lourdes students Megan Ryan, Roisin Gillen and Ciara McKenna who sang at the Proms in London’s Albert Hall, pictured with their music teachers Deirdre Kennedy and Lisa Clarke
THREE local students have performed at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall.
The three Mount Lourdes students, Roisin Gillen, Ciara McKenna and Megan Ryan are part of the Ulster Youth Choir who performed at the event.
Year 14 student, Ciara, explained: “The main part of being a member is attending the residential course run in the summer. This year the course was held in Campbell College, Belfast and ran from the 2nd to the 8th of August. It is a four part choir with both female and male voices, and is conducted by the brilliant Greg Beardsell.”
The main objective of the week was to prepare for a concert at the end of the week in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.
This year the theme was based around the World War 1 commemorations, so all of the pieces sang had relation to the theme.
Ciara added: “As a member of Ulster Youth Choir we were invited to perform in the Royal Albert Hall London as part of BBC Proms. Ulster Youth Choir joined up with four other choirs and combined we became known as the “BBC Proms Youth Choir”. There was a choir from Scotland and Wales, two from England and the Ulster Youth Choir represented Northern Ireland. The choirs all came together to form a choir of about 300 people aged 15-25. We were Prom 47 and performed Benjamin Britten’s ‘War Requiem’ conducted by Andris Nelsons and chorus-master Simon Halsey.”
Ciaran explained that the choir met five days before the performance, and performed on August 21.
“Overall the experience was unforgettable, and words can’t even to begin to describe how enjoyable it was.
“We met so many different people and made so many great friends along the way. We are so glad to have been given this opportunity, after all, it not every day you get to perform in the Royal Albert Hall in London.”
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